9 ways to transform your coworking space into a haven for freelancers.

How to transform your coworking space into a haven for freelancers is a matter of understanding the needs of this diverse group of professionals. However, as you start to delve deeper into this process, you'll realise that it's impossible to cater to all the needs of this diverse group, although you probably shouldn't try, given that neither your budget nor the space you have at your disposal is infinite.

You may think this is a somewhat contradictory way to start a mini guide to making your coworking space more attractive to freelancers. Still, nothing could be further from this: what I'm trying to say is that you should focus your efforts, optimise your resources and be realistic with your expectations. In contrast, you make sure that in the process of making it more attractive to new members you don't degrade your current value proposition to your current audience for the sake of a new target audience that you haven't yet captured.

But before I listing those things that tend to be important for freelancers, let me suggest two “exercises” you could do to make decisions that are more tailored to your particular case.

1. Analysing your current value proposition

In order to improve a coworking space, the first step is to understand where your space is. Let's start by analysing your current customers. Prepare a list of members, filter for those who are freelancers and start answering questions:

• Understand who your members are and what they do. In this step, it is crucial to analyse other demographic information to detect patterns that, at first glance, might go unnoticed.
• How do they use the space - do they regularly meet clients in the meeting rooms, are they avid booth users or both? Do they make much use of the common areas, or do they spend a lot of time in the conventional workspace? Do they come to the space to focus or to socialise? Do they come to the space to concentrate, or do they come to the space to socialise?
• What about anything that is not part of the physical space? Do they participate in events? If so, at what times or formats and themes are they interested? Do they drink coffee in the space or eat complimentary fruit or biscuits?

All these answers will give you an idea of what is key in satisfying these profiles. However, this does not answer some questions that need to be answered:

• Why did they choose our coworking space?
• What do they think it lacks, what is unnecessary, and what would they improve?

These questions are important because people's dynamics give us an insight into what is happening, but it may not be obvious why it is happening. For example, you may think that some users don't need the conventional workspace very much when, in fact, they simply don't find the chair comfortable or are bothered by excessive noise and so try to vary their body posture by splitting their time between an office chair, which they find uncomfortable, and stools or sofas into other areas, or they are trying to find a quieter area to work in.

With this information, you will have a better idea of your current client. However, the portrait will not be complete without information on why your former freelance clients left the space, and from there, optimise your value proposition and message when targeting this audience.

 The next step is to understand what opportunities we have to target audiences that are close in terms of needs to what we offer or can offer.

2. Analyse your environment

Analysing the environment around your location is key as it will critically impact all the key factors of a coworking space.

The first step is understanding what kind of people are already in the area and why they find it attractive. To be most effective, I would suggest that you focus on analysing the coworking spaces close to you and objectively assess their value proposition and the type of audience they attract. This process can open your eyes to the myopia that your day-to-day life in your space can inspire you to develop new ideas or services to improve the value proposition of your coworking space.

Pablo Picasso said, ‘Good artists copy; great artists steal’, and although the phrase raises some controversy as it is often misinterpreted: be inspired by what you see, combine new ideas with yours. One response to a post on Reddit reads: ‘George Lucas “stole” much of the ideas in Star Wars from other media, like Kurosawa samurai films and Joseph Campbell's “Hero With a Thousand Faces”. The difference with ‘stealing’ vs. ‘copying’ though (in my interpretation at least) is that Lucas not only took ideas from those sources, but combined and transformed them in ways which made them something more than the sum of the parts’.

Copying what another coworking space offers and fighting for price leads to a spiral that benefits no one (apart from the client in the short term), so try to see how you can offer a value proposition that attracts more profiles.

Now, let's look at the generic aspects that tend to impact on freelancers' use of space.

3. Internet & Wi-Fi

I'm almost embarrassed to talk about this topic in 2024, but let's not take anything for granted. A reliable, high-speed internet connection is non-negotiable. Your infrastructure must not only be able to handle the bandwidth demands of all members, including video conferencing, file uploads and cloud-based work.

Keep in mind that it is not only about having adequate bandwidth but also about the system being able to prioritise those demands that are critical: for example, an email, upload or download should not take ages to complete but may be somewhat slower in case of network overload while a video conference that cuts out, or that you are forced to do without video to minimise its bandwidth, causes dissatisfaction and gives an unprofessional image of both your coworking space and your users.

Another aspect that should not be forgotten is network security. Not all profiles pay attention to this, but when I visit space, and my phone warns me that a network is not secure, it does not usually generate a very good image of that coworking space.

4. Space

No one wants to go to work in a space that is worse than their own home unless they are forced to, and freelancers rarely are unless they have a very good reason for it. Some people are more design-conscious, and some are less so, but in general, you want a pleasant space with natural light and ergonomic furniture.

Replacing opaque walls with transparent or translucent walls may come at a cost. Still, it can significantly improve the perception of the space in the same way that uncomfortable chairs can affect member retention or uptake at dedicated table rates (hint: if your chair is better than the member's chair, then I’m pretty sure, the member's chair is not good enough). Where possible, incorporate plants into the space as dozens of reports confirm what common sense dictates: After the introduction of plants ‘Overall significant effects were found on complaints about dry air (fewer), the sense of privacy (higher), the attractiveness of the workspace (higher), satisfaction with the workspace (greater) and having a health-related complaint, especially when at work (fewer)’. Take care of the plants; plants in poor condition have the opposite effect to the desired one.

People conduct different activities during the day that allow for varying levels of concentration and privacy, for example:

Solitary or group work

• Private workstations: Quiet desks for concentrated and solitary work.
• Group work areas: open collaborative spaces that can be found in breakout areas and in meeting rooms for collaborative work in private.

Interacting with outsiders

• Phone boxes: Small, soundproof spaces for phone or video calls. Since the popularisation of remote working, they have become mandatory and have at least doubled (the ratio of booths per member). The number of options on the market has also multiplied, and in some markets, you can opt not only to buy them but also to rent them.
• Meeting rooms: Soundproof rooms for meetings, group calls or presentations equipped with power sockets at the table, a screen and a video conferencing system (no need to go crazy with the costs but there are minimums to consider. A whiteboard, digital or not, fixed to the wall is not a bad idea either.

Also, bear in mind that meeting rooms have evolved, and you can look for more relaxed approaches to some of your rooms by including more informal furniture, such as coffee tables and sofas. Remember that the important thing is to offer privacy and choice to your members.

• Breakout areas: If you incorporate large tables or sofas for group work you can use your breakout areas for this work. However, to do this in a private setting, you will need to use an appropriately sized meeting or training room.

To relax, connect or do creative work 

• Breakout areas: Spaces to socialise or take a break. By including a variety of furniture, you can create different environments for different times, create a more open or (semi-)private feeling, or use a meeting room for total privacy.

The number of meeting rooms and the use that will be made of them will depend on the profile of freelancers in your space and environment. If your members work a lot with local clients and in a more conservative industry, they are likely to require a lot of them, whereas if your members work for other markets or in more relaxed industries,s they will make much more extensive use of the booths while rarely stepping foot in a meeting room or receiving visitors of any kind.

In this regard, it would be good if you start tracking how many people use the meeting room: traditionally, many spaces opted for big meeting rooms, and most of the time, they are under their nominal capacity. If that’s the case you might think of better ways of using that spare space: maybe splitting the meeting room in two? Consider also which of the uses is providing extra income and which are not.

5. Different needs, different rates

Having rates with varying degrees of flexibility is important. Create rates for each of the different groups you want to attract.

You can offer a good value proposition for a dedicated desk but if you want to have people using your coworking space sporadically, create rates that allow this kind of usage: there is nothing users hate more than paying for something they feel they don't take advantage of.

Some of the most common rates (from the highest average ticket to the lowest one) are:

Monthly dedicated desk rates offer stability and certainty or monthly hot desks, which are cheaper.

Monthly rates for days or hours: as above but limited to a specific number of days or hours.

Daypasses packs: Remember that vouchers are vouchers, not memberships. They can be rusty and expire on a certain date, or we can be more flexible. I have seen some overly complicated cases, if this is the case then the voucher is poorly thought out.

Hourly packs: These are the same as above but with hours.

Day passes: For those who need a space occasionally.

Virtual office: This is for freelancers who only need a business address or mail management.

Remember that there are also platforms where you can register to market your space by hours or days. If you decide, check which one is most popular in your area.

Implementing flexible memberships, passes & packs of passes is very complicated, causes a lot of friction, and will keep your staff unnecessarily busy unless you are using a coworking management software adequately set up for that with the necessary integrations.

6. Other services and extras that can make a difference

As I said before, the coworking space clients choose is looking forward to improving what they have at home. So now let’s talk about the little extras that can make a difference. Or, put another way, try not to offer a table, a chair, and some common spaces but add a little love.

• 24/7 access: Everyone prefers to work regular hours, but sometimes it's just not possible, for example, when members’ clients are in a different time zone.
• Kitchenette: Your members may be on a strict diet or want to save money. Having a space where you can store food and heat up food is the bare minimum. This space also works miracles at the community level with virtually no effort (although there may be some cultural variations. What I can tell you is that if you include cooking in the mix, it is something that members will value, and it will help them interact with each other much more. But be careful with the smells: an open kitchen is fabulous but can be challenging.
• Offer coffee and tea: Free access to quality beverages as long as your margin allows it. Some coworking spaces also choose to offer coffee at cost or a basic option, including a paid premium one.
• Lockers: Secure storage for personal items. For some rates included, for others as an extra.
• Printers/scanners: These are increasingly rare at home and still useful, especially with non-digitised bureaucracy or trying to digitise what you are still given or sent in paper.
• Bicycle storage space and showers: One of my favourites, but only applicable if your target group is a bike commuter.
• Siesta or meditation rooms: these are not uncontroversial, but for some people, they can be important. On my list (of priorities) it would be at the bottom, but I would make it bookable, maximum capacity one person, and ensure that its entrance is well covered by the space's camera system just for peace of mind.
• Accepting pets: This is another one of those controversial issues and one that gets more complicated with scale. If you do it, as I have done, my advice is to assess dog by dog and communicate a written policy in which the rules are very clear: the animal must be well behaved and the criteria for what that means it should always be that of the coworking managers. These policies can do a lot of good for the community of a space, they also provide a lot of Instagram posts but they carry a significant risk. I shared my flat for 12 years with a French Bulldog and although you might think I’m biased, the truth is he was not coming with me because my job required me to move around and I knew he was going to say hi to people and try to get some food if possible, and although he was not annoying that might bother some people. Why am I telling you this? Because, as a manager, it is important that we set those boundaries and keep control of them, as is not only about the dog but about the boundaries people have.
• Cafeteria service: having options for members to get their food without leaving the space is a plus that in some cases can be difficult to implement if you lack the scale to make this service profitable. One option would be to implement it in such a way that people from outside the coworking space can also be customers of it and operate it as a coworking café in which you would apply the more flexible rates we have discussed in the previous point. Otherwise you can choose to have an agreement with a catering service that offers on-demand food at relatively reasonable notice.

7. Community and events

I forgot to mention that this list is not in order of importance but is instead organised by sections which make sense for reading. Why am I telling you this? This point is critically important for attracting and retaining freelancers.

Historically, when coworking spaces were mainly populated by freelancers, coworkers would join a space to seek community, to network, and to avoid working in isolation at home or being confined to a small office. For many people, this remains a priority (including many remote workers).

Pleasant communal spaces help foster some organic relationships, but we need to do our part to make this work by creating networking events, workshops, and social gatherings: it is not about the space but also about the moments you create for them.

Some ideas could be:

• Workshops: Topics like productivity, digital marketing, or personal branding.
• Networking events: Regular meetups to encourage connections and interaction among members. I'm not a huge fan of these events, especially when they feel forced (recently, a colleague and I escaped one of these), so proceed with caution.
• Knowledge-sharing sessions: Members can teach each other skills. If left to chance, these almost never happen, but you can create a form or promote it through internal emails or at social or networking events. These sessions, along with networking, if well-designed, are key, as they represent the more business-focused aspect that freelancers will find highly beneficial in the space.
• Social events: The format will be dictated by your community. Afterwork on Friday (or Thursday) nights, game or movie nights, creative breakfasts, vermouth on Friday before lunch... Take into account your members’ age, family responsibilities, etc. A bad time or framing can kill an otherwise successful event. You just need to understand what works and when, but food and drink are a must.

Everything tangible is easy to copy, but the intangible is much harder: a community is nearly impossible to replicate. If you can create a sense of belonging, it will make freelancers feel more connected to the space and improve member retention.

8. Building a strong and sustainable brand

When a freelancer considers joining your space, one of the two questions they will ask themselves is what will my clients think of me when they visit me in the space, see me making a call from it, put the space address in their email signature, etc.

The physical space matters, how clean and well maintained it is matters, but how this is projected outwardly is also critical. Years ago, brands tended to be more fun and look for funny puns or had amateur-designed logos; that era is long gone (in most markets I know of, at least).

Having a brand that projects professionalism, creativity, diversity, innovation, and sustainability is critical. If we look at both branding and space design we will see that over time they have become more neutral and minimalist in order not to cannibalise the corporate images of their clients.

I think that at this point, it is essential:

• Have a website that projects professionalism both in terms of design, photography and graphic content and that is integrated with booking and membership systems (at least for pay-per-use rates).
• Social networks: profiles on Google Maps, Instagram and LinkedIn that allow us to interact with users and attract potential partners while acting as a ‘verifying’ element as they offer a much more faithful (in theory) image of day-to-day life in the space than the web.
• Newsletters are back: Keep members and users informed about what is happening in the space without bombarding them.
• Offer free day passes: Offering a complimentary day pass to each of your members every X number of months is a way to ensure that more people get to know the space firsthand hand, and nothing makes a sale easier than a person who tries the space and has been recommended by another member.
• Referral programmes: offer a discount to both the referrer and the referred but include it in the form so that there is no doubt (because it can get you into trouble). The truth is that when members are happy, they recommend without expecting anything in return (and you have a thousand ways to thank them for it).

One more thing... but not less important. When you communicate, you can't give the impression that you're shooting from the hip: giving the responsibility of publishing to an intern without a guide, a plan, a calendar and a style guide is a bad idea. Your communication should focus on highlighting your services, projecting an image of professionalism, and your values. Give a clear picture of life in the space and ultimately bring the reality of your space to those people most likely to convert because they are aligned on what you offer and how you do it. They will in fact buy not what you do but why you do it: but don't be too mystical.

9. Team

If your communication is the first line of contact with members, they will get their first impression of “the real thing” from your staff.

The industry has long since moved towards hospitality, and I would like you to remember that they are masters of making people feel even better than they do at home. There are different styles, more formal and less formal, but the truth is that a good front desk, community builder or space manager can make or break your customers' satisfaction.

Our industry I think faces some challenges in this regard, with all clients but especially freelancers who tend to interact much more with the space staff, with the challenge of having the client ‘in house’ indefinitely testing both their preparation and motivation on a daily basis.

We hope you have found this guide useful and that you will find in it those elements that will help you to make your space the best alternative for freelancers in your area.